[Volume XXVII THE CHICAGO BANKER 20 ¡ml ( j MECHANICS-AMERICAN NATIONAL BANK OF ST. LOUIS CAPITAL $2,000,000 SURPLUS $2,500,000 Superior Facilities Offered to Correspondents ״ L. A. BATTAILE, Vice-President J. S. CALFEE, Cashier G. L. ALLEN, Assistant Cashier ACKSON JOHNSON. v,ce.Pres. EPHRON CATLIN. Vice-President G. M. TRUMBO, Assistant Cashier P. H. MILLER. Assistant Cashier KNAUTH, NACHOD NEW YORK Travelers’ Checks in denominations of $10, $20, $50 and $100 Furnished to Banks and Banke INVESTMENT & KÜHNE, Bankers LEIPZIG, GERMANY Letters of Credit in Pounds Sterling, Dollars, Marks and Francs ;rs for direct sale to Travelers SECURITIES St. Louis S@o!ÄW(igii IBkmlknimg Kansas City nounced their federal charters and became state associations. For some time past complaints have reached Washington from Oklahoma of the workings of the new guaranty law. The information received is that the law has worked unsatisfactorily. It is believed here that the action of the Oklahoma City Bank, in asking for a national charter, is but the beginning of a movement among the Oklahoma banks to get away from the guaranty law. Bonding Companies to Double Rates Bonds for employees of Missouri state banks and trust companies will come higher because of an act passed by the legislature at its last session. They will cost about twice as much as under the old system. The general assembly in prescribing the form of the bond to be given put in some features the bonding companies seriously objected to. General agents of bonding companies in St. Louis state that the act is not very clear on some points, but one point which will cause the raise is classing as culpable negligence the passing as genuine a signature to a check whether or not this is done innocently. John E. Swanger, state bank commissioner, has sent notices to the state banks and trust companies to the effect that when the present bonds of employees expire they must be renewed in accordance with the provisions of the new statute. All bonding companies, as far as known, will increase the rates to just about double what they now are. Postal Banking now Going On It has been discovered by some tireless searcher for truth that the United States already does an extensive postoffice banking business, through the money order department. It is stated that foreign laborers who lack confidence in American banks, but are familiar with the postal savings banks of Europe, have deposited, within the year more than $250,000 in the postoffice at Kansas City alone. They buy money orders payable to themselves. They draw no interest, of course, and have to pay a fee of 30 cents on each $100. But their money, they feel, is safely banked. Money for orders not cashed within a year is One of Kansas will participate, bringing about 225 members and several invited guests. The Missouri group includes Jackson and Clay counties. The Kansas district takes in a number of counties in the eastern and central part of the state, comprising 164 banks. The principal address will be made by George E. Roberts, president of the Commercial National of Chicago, who will speak on “The Central Bank.” F. P. Neal, president of the Kansas City Clearing House Association, will welcome the bankers. John S. Major of Liberty, Mo., district chairman of the Missouri group, will respond. Guaranty Law Unsatisfactory The comptroller of the currency granted permission to the Farmers’ State Bank of Oklahoma City, Okla., to convert into a national bank. This is new and conclusive evidence that the bank guaranty deposit law of Oklahoma is not proving as popular as its authors expected it would be. Following the adoption of the statute, more than sixty of the national banks of Oklahoma re- Foreman Bros. Banking Co. iio LaSalle Street CHICAGO GAPITAL AND SURPLUS $1,500,000 ESTABLISHED 1862 INCORPORATED AS A STATE BANK 1897 Officers EDWIN G. FOREMAN, Pres. GEORGE N. NEISE, Cashier OSCAR G. FOREMAN, V. P. JOHN TERB0RGH, A. Cash. The east section of the Oklahoma State Bankers Association, which met n semiannual meeting in Tulsa, October 21st, after condemning the guaranty deposit law as exemplified in the recent failure of the Columbia Bank and Trust Company of Oklahoma City, demanded that the Oklahoma banking law undergo radical amendments. The amendments wanted were embodied in a series of four resolutions, as follows: 1. That the State Banking Board be abolished and that the management and control of the guaranty fund be placed in the hands of the state bank commissioner. 2. That the guaranty fund be redeposited with the banks from which it originated without interest. 3. That the state bear the expense of maintaining and operating the guaranty fund. 4. That upon the liquidation of any bank this bank shall take over as an asset 90 per cent of the unused portion of the guaranty fund contributed by this bank. To Fight Surety Suit Fred S. Jackson, attorney-general, has filed an application in the supreme court to have him made a defendant in the suit brought by the Bankers’ Guaranty and Surety Company to compel the state superintendent of insurance to give it a permit to transact business in Kansas. This is the company which was organized by Kansas bankers to write insurance for bank deposits. The attorney-general sets out that the case is one of extreme importance to the state and many business interests and that the attorney-general should be a party to represent the state. Charles Barnes, state superintendent of insurance, filed his answer to the suit. He says he doubts the authority of the charter board to grant a charter to this company. Clearing House to be Host at Group Meeting Separate and joint sessions of groups of Missouri and Kansas State Bank Associations will be held at Kansas City November 16th. At the joint session at the Hotel Baltimore the Kansas City Clearing House Association will be host. Group Four of the Missouri bankers and Group